


Halt (it will be softer)

by Shadowdianne, ShadowSelene (Shadowdianne)



Series: Senses [3]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-09
Updated: 2019-09-09
Packaged: 2020-10-13 00:04:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,130
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20573147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/Shadowdianne, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shadowdianne/pseuds/ShadowSelene
Summary: She would have never thought she would relish that kind of quiet moments, her younger self, the one that she still could feel huddling in some crook of her mind, would have definitely yawned in boredom. Now, however...Asked -somehow- by waknatious.





	Halt (it will be softer)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N Ok, so this is the third installment of the “senses” series I guess I started. Logic? There’s no logic; any complaint please go and speak to waknatious for it :P We already had Hearing with Breathe (It will be softer) and Touch with Touch (It will be warmer). Halt fits in the same narrative by being Smell. As happened with Touch one doesn’t need to read the previous two to fully get the gist of it but if you are in a domestic-kind-of-need I recommend the whole series.
> 
> And that’s me for now. Will see you at Taste!
> 
> PS: Comments are greatly appreciated. Love you all. VIVA LA SWAN QUEEN.

“You didn’t wake me.”

Emma smiled as Regina hugged her from behind, chin resting on her right shoulder as she busied herself with the brunette’s usual cup of coffee. Light was crawling down from the ceiling where it pooled from the open windows of the mansion’s kitchen and she reflected on those as she rose her eyes to it; squinting them slightly at the minute stab of pain she felt when her pupils adjusted to the sunbeams. It was late in the morning, later than the older woman would have probably preferred to be up but Emma didn’t feel an ounce of guilt as she shrugged. The movement caused for Regina to adjust her grip from just below her diaphragm to slightly lower, fingers interlaced against her stomach.

She had, indeed, refused to wake the brunette when her alarm had gone off, the usual grogginess that it came with it slow to abandon her body as she had willed the cobwebs of sleep away. Glancing at her right, at where Regina had been resting, deeply tucked into the sheets, she had only been able to chuckle softly before borrowing into the time of calmness that only morning could bring.

There were acts to attend to; meetings to go. At least for the sleeping woman; the weight of the crown a heavy one even if she didn’t speak about it often. Not outloud. Tip-toeing away from the bed, Emma had gone to the kitchen, sending a quick message to Henry telling him that his other mother would probably be late for the first row of things she was supposed to do. The young man had answered later than she would have expected with just a quick message that now flashed on her mind’s eye as she hummed, letting her magic wash away over them both.

_“Take care of her.”_

And she planned to do that indeed; rising her left hand, she touched Regina’s knuckles, sending a spiral-like tendril of magic up the brunette’s forearm that glimmered silver and then gold as she sighed. Ozone scent filling the kitchen, Emma waited for Regina’s magic to respond to her, the same soft yet burning feeling of need coursing through her when the purples and reds of the brunette’s power reached for hers in a shower of sparks.

“Thought you needed the rest.”

Emma wouldn’t have usually done that, the two of them knew. There were some things neither of them could stand; others making decisions without considering their feelings one of those. Yet, Regina’s muscles didn’t tighten, the soft murmur of a hum reaching Emma as she glanced at her side, not quite enough to be able to see the brunette’s cheek but enough for her to catch a glimpse of the woman’s tresses, the hand on her stomach turning so Emma could briefly close her fingers around Regina’s before they were freed once more.

“You think so?”

There wasn’t any malice on the comment, genuine curiosity reaching from behind the vowels and consonants and Emma found herself at loss at the raw ingenuity the older woman was displaying. She sometimes tended to forget, maybe, that despite everything, Regina could channel the same problematic absence of care about herself that Emma also showed whenever things were too much. Biting into her lower lip, she reached for the ozone scent that still lingered around them, the magic wafting towards them, enveloping them, as she tapped into it once more: droplet-like caresses making contact against their skin where they dissipated, leaving behind electric-like tendrils that glowed with their conjoined magic.

Coffee, breakfast. The act on itself tended to be mechanic whenever the two of them happened to wake up together; things to plan, problems to fix, their usual morning routine. They enjoyed robbed seconds at lunch, full of the scent of granny’s cooking if Regina couldn’t make it out of her meetings in time, the familiarity of it all making Emma forget, some of the times, that they weren’t at the mayor’s office anymore but at the castle, the one that had appeared out of thin air less than a year ago while being brought into existence by the aid of the same magic she had thought she would never feel nor see again. They rarely got to have time for themselves until nighttime, when the smell of rain sometimes did come from the trees that surrounded Storybrooke, ocean and salt mixed with it if she managed to carry them to the docks for a quick walk, one of that was all them, only them.

She would have never thought she would relish that kind of quiet moments, her younger self, the one that she still could feel huddling in some crook of her mind, would have definitely yawned in boredom. Now, however, as she pressed herself against the kitchen counter so she could gain enough space in order to turn into Regina’s grasp and offer her her morning coffee, she could only feel lucky she had managed to rob back a few more moments of leisure, the kind of ones that made her tuck her chin down into the jumper’s neck as Regina rose her brow in curious challenge.

“They will survive a few more hours without you.”

It wasn’t a quite good enough answer but Emma didn’t feel like answering the full spectrum of her thoughts, not when magic still kept pouring out of her, coffee steaming between them as she offered the cup, fingers a mix of hot from the drink and cold from the water she had let run as she had washed her own cup from before. Shivering as Regina’s fingers closed around her, she inhaled while magic reached her once more, the taste of ozone in the air sticking to the back of her nose as she did so. There was something else there perhaps, a promise of doing these kinds of things more often, in the way Regina blinked, understanding dawning them both.

“You can always try to get tomorrow free if you want.”

They needed to be better at this, the conversation and admission was an implicit one and Emma decided she liked such odds even if she was sure her father would probably blink and not quite understand until she had some kind of chat with him about why she was going to take some time off. Being back, back from the sleepwalking being she had let her own circumstances turn her into, was good but she felt her muscles aching, her magic reaching, as she thought on the still bundle that awaited for her two mothers to come and wake her, morning stretched thin as it was.

And maybe, making time wasn’t the worst thing of all.

“I can do that.”

And she meant it.


End file.
